So your business finally has everything it needs to start: a fully furnished office decked out with top-of-the-line equipment. Good start, but I bet you haven’t thought about how to protect your business from Mother Nature’s wrath.
It probably didn’t cross your mind but it’s something to think about, especially when natural disasters can bring chaos to any business in a flash. In early July 2013, Toronto went through a watery havoc when a surge of rainwater flooded the metropolis with record highs. Calgary experienced a similar event just weeks before. Hurricane Katrina, Sandy, tsunamis and the list can go on. Now, the question for every business owner: are you ready?
Cloud-based services could save your business from hitting rock bottom. It allows your business to bypass a cul-du-sac and continue to run smoothly albeit, say, a flood that’s affected the office space. Saving your data on a local hard drive versus that of moving to the cloud could lead to losing every vital piece of information. Data stored in the cloud will always be accessible – anywhere and anytime – whereas saving it to a hard drive leaves it vulnerable to damage. Think about how your business can continue to operate when faced with worst-case scenarios.
Will your business be at stake if the office is hit by a disaster? Where is data being stored? How will workers and customers communicate without functioning phone lines? These are just some questions to ask when running small to medium-sized businesses.
Some of the advantages of using cloud-based services include its low initial investment, ample storage capacity and the accessibility.
The Internet being always available and robust provides the right platform for cloud-computing services. Another good thing about cloud services is that it grows as you grow. Typically an on-demand model, it grows accordingly to the business and there’s no need to waste capital to upgrade costly hardware. There’s a lot of room for expansion.
There’s also the use of a hosted phone service where employees can virtually connect to their company’s office and telephone system. A hosted or virtual PBX is inexpensive to set up compared to an onsite phone system, which comes with the cost of purchasing equipment and maintaining it. It’s a positive investment for small business owners as there’s a VoIP service provider that maintains and operates the phone system. Also, workers still have complete access and usage of the business line if they can’t come into the office for whatever reason. By using a hosted PBX, workers can virtually connect to the same telephone system, allowing them to make and transfer calls, set up conference calls and manage automated voice operators. The flexibility to work anywhere enables your business to stay ahead of the race a midst a disaster without the plunge that’ll cost time and capital.
Take a look at where your business currently stands to see if there are ways of improving it. Will there be anyone to answer your phone if disaster strikes? Let us know your thoughts.
